Artnet’s Faces & Figures Photographs Sale

Bert Stern – Marilyn Monroe: from The Last Sitting (“I beg of you”)

Artnet will be featuring a special sale of 375 photographs until November 19th. It may be your chance to fetch a Cecil Beaton or a Doisneau for $500. The auction includes portraits of some of the most unforgettable faces of the 20th-21st century by legendary photographers. Bert Stern figures with Marilyn Monroe luminous portraits from the “Last Sitting”.

Yousuf Karsh – Georgia O’Keefe – circa 1956

Marc Chagall: Life and Love

After being postponed because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Pera Museum in Istanbul opened this week the exhibition Marc Chagall, Life and Love with 160 works by the Russian master. The show includes a selection of pieces that celebrates his great love for his wife, Bella, his favourite model. The theme is explored in images of the couple in each other’s arms, kissing and floating blissfully on an colourful landscape. Bella wrote two memoir books that are also on display: First Encounter and Burning Lights.

Fire Destroys 90% of Helio Oiticica’s Works

Brazilians are mourning the loss of almost 2,000 works of Helio Oiticica, on a fire last night in Rio de Janeiro. The works were estimated in US$ 200 million.

Born in Rio in 1937, Hélio Oiticica came to be regarded as one of the most revolutionary artists of the country for its innovative and experimental work. Oiticica was a founder in 1959 of the Neoconcreto movement along with names such as Amilcar de Castro, Lygia Clark and Franz Weissmann. His work “Tropicalia” was one of the main inspirations of the Tropicalia movement.

Caetano Veloso, Brazilian singer and composer, wears one of Oitcica’s ‘Parangoles’

Irving Penn Dies at 92

Irving Penn – Girl in Bed, 1949

Irving Penn, American photographer, died yesterday at his home in Manhattan.  He was 92. Known for taking subjects out of context by bringing them to studio and placing them against a simple background composing striking images, Penn worked until quite recently always pushing the boundaries of the traditional concept of beauty. From fashion to still-life, from Aborigine tribesmen to San Francisco hippies, he registered everything with a sensitive and loving eye. “Photographing a cake can be art”, he said once.  Read more on Yahoo news.

The 2009 Turner Prize

‘papier mache eggman’ by enrico david, 2009 from the installation ‘how do you love dzzzzt by mammy?

gold leaf painting by richard wright

The 2009 Turner Prize exhibition opened at Tate Britain today. Brain matter, whale skeleton, papier macher, an atomized aircraft engine, compete for this year’s 25,000 pounds prize. The result will be known on December 7th. The four shot-listed artists are Richard Wright, Enrico David, Roger Hiorns and Lucy Skaer.
Designboom has more images.

Pop Life: Art in a Material World

It’s tomorrow! On October 1st Tate Modern opens the doors for its very anticipated show Pop Life. The exhibition brings together artists from the 1980s onwards who have embraced commerce and the mass media to build their own ‘brands’: Andy Warhol, Takashi Murakami, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Keith Haring, Tracey Emin and others. The subject will be discussed  during the symposium Good Business is the Best Art (after Warhol’s quote). The best way to celebrate this must-needed show is by hitting the Tate shop. You can take home a Murakami Rainbow Flower Cushion or a Jeff Koons Beach Towel among many other items.

Mario Cravo Neto (1947 – 2009)

Mario Cravo Neto, Brazilian photographer, died last Sunday at 62. His work has a strong religious content and he was a master in showing the human body both powerful and fragile. I am sad -his work never failed to touch me. Spiritual, mystical, erotic, his images composed a beautiful portrait of the people of his region, Bahia.

He didn’t have a website, but artnet is a good source for images.

The Kings of Pop – Michael Jackson by Warhol goes to Auction

Andy Warhol, Michael Jackson, 1984, 76.2 x 66 cm, technicolor silkscreen

Commissioned to celebrate the success of Thriller, a portrait of Michael Jackson painted by Andy Warhol goes to auction later this August in New York. From 1984, when both artists were at their peak, the silkscreen will probably fetch far more than its starting price of $800K. Read more.

A Citywide Drawing Festival

Nick Lepard -Study, Nick 7, 2009, charcoal on paper, 38 x 25 inches

For three weeks in July and August, Vancouver-area galleries and museums will come together to host an unprecedented series of exhibitions devoted to the medium of drawing. The first celebration of its kind in Canada and possibly the world, this unique multi-venue event will include an exciting program of free lectures, gallery tours, exhibition openings, artist talks, and more. Go to www.drawnfestival.ca for more info on venues and dates.

The Venice Biennale Cafeteria Gets the Golden Lion Award

Tobias Rehberger is awarded the Golden Lion as best artist at the 53^rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. Tobias Rehberger received the prize for the cafeteria, for which he collaborated closely with Artek using customized Artek furniture in an ingenious way. The cafeteria created by Rehberger is a complex scheme of geometric forms with contrasting colors, a visually disorienting environment that draw from a specific example from the past: razzle dazzle or dazzle painting – a decorative style used on ships during the First World War. (more…)